The One With Jolene

October 17, 2016

Got to see sister Xiong at Presidents Fireside! She's so cute she makes me feel so happy whenever I'm by her.

Can't get over how beautiful Minnesota is 

Outfits from Goodwill

Despite not being able to teach very much this week turned out awesome :) On Monday after emailing we headed to Apple Valley to help Sister Spiers clean the apartment there because it was SO BAD. Not even kidding, it looked like stuff exploded everywhere. Two and a half hours later we finished cleaning just the bedroom and the closet, and we ended up with about 7 garbage bags of stuff and garbage. Afterwards we were planning on staying and doing work in apple valley but we all forgot proselyting clothes so we went on over to good will and all found outfits to wear. That was SO much fun! I'll attach some pictures below of the final products. 

Tuesday we finally got a call from president telling us the fate of our tripanionship. Sister Spiers went to Crystal Lake because another sister went home for medical reason. She is happy to finally have an area (she kept saying she felt homeless for a while there. hahaha) and I'm happy to finally be sleeping in a bed again :)

Also cool experience, while we were at our weekly zone service, the prince of peace food shelf, I got to host so I got to interact with a lot of people. I was helping a Russian lady and I asked if she would like to say a prayer at the end and she said yes. The spirit was strong and when I finished praying I looked up and she was crying. We couldn't talk very much because of the language barrier but we hugged and she went on her way. I loved that, I felt like even though all I did was pray for her I was helping God tell her he loved her.

On Tuesday night I had one of the most spiritual lessons I've had on my mission. The lesson was w/ Nette and Brother Lightner and we talked about repentance. Last Sunday was fast Sunday and the new elder in our ward, Elder Moore bore his testimony and mentioned that he was a convert and had gone less active for a while because he didn't understand repentance. That has really stuck with me and I realized that I have hardly taught an individual lesson solely on repentance and challenged people to repent. It's always been a side thing that you just teach when you teach about the gospel of Jesus Christ but I kind of realized that it's not. That lesson was so powerful as we all talked about repentance and I thought after 'if that's what preaching repentance feels like I want to do it all the time'. I am so thankful that I get to serve around Elder Moore, his testimony on repentance has helped me to see the importance of it.

So fun fact, there are now Elders in Apple Valley instead of sisters. Weird right? I know. But I guess we'll keep 'em haha. I think they're exactly what Apple Valley needs right now.

********* HOLD THE PHONE! PUT DOWN YOUR POODLE AND READ THIS *********

Let me set the stage for you. So It's 12pm on a beautiful fall Thursday in Burnsville Minnesota and Sister Myers and I have gathered at the home of the wonderful Sister Thayer to have a lesson with our investigator Jolene. We all arrive on time and get situated on thee couches. We have planned to teach the Plan of Salvation and are equipped with visuals and scriptures galore. But we need an opening prayer to start it all off. Jolene offers the prayer and in her prayer says that she will be baptized!!!!!!! Then we teach an awesome lesson that was full of the spirit and we set a date with her for December 3rd!!!! Ahhhhhh! So exciting. She is one of those people that you can almost see the spirit working on and see her Change right in front of your eyes! I love her so much!

*** Okay you can now pick up your yapping poodle and finish reading this email ***

 RS Activity

Our tripanionship

 Crafting (the small lady with the long brown hair and glasses is Jolene)

On Friday we got to go to our ward relief society activity which was a crafting night cause Jolene came! She was really a super star this week. It was so fun I made a necklace out of an arrow head given to me from a less active member in my last area and two rice bags which I love! Our Relief Society is awesome! I have to say, the nice thing about being in an area for more than 3 months is that you actually get to know the members and they know you :)

Saturday the elders and us got invited to play ultimate Frisbee with a member and a group of his nonmember friends and then 4 more elders showed up and it was so much fun! I am still so sore but hey, it turns out I love Ultimate Frisbee even though I'm not the best at it. 

Miracle of the Week: So from what we have learned about Jolene as we've been teaching her, we know that she might have difficulty with the commandment of Paying Tithing.  So Jolene walks into church on Sunday and just goes, girls I know what my purpose is! It's to make money to give to the church to help keep it running! Our jaws just about hit the floor. Basically Jolene wants to pay tithing. Ummm, WHAT!? #MiraclesHappenOnceInAWhile

First of the Week:

We are teaching the Parco's in our ward the missionary lessons and Brother Parco is a food Scientist. He let us try some of the stuff he was using in his next project. So I tried freeze dried Broccoli, corn and dried pineapple for the first time. Not gonna lie the broccoli was kinda weird but I loved the corn and pineapple. I just might need to get some of that :)

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

Like I mentioned in my email I have been thinking about repentance a lot this week. During one of our companionship studies sister Myers shared that she realized that sin was not only disobeying God’s commandments but also failing to live righteously. As she said that I started to realize that all of us are not living up to God's standards. None of us can ever get to the perfect level of Charity or Kindness or diligence. We are all falling short of God's standards and so are all sinning continuously. No matter how good people say we are we can always pick out a million things we can do better. How grateful I am for Jesus Christ and his atonement. I sin all the time whether I like it or not, and without the atonement, without Christ, I would be lost forever and would never be able to make it back to be with my father in heaven again. I would never grow or learn to be better than I was or than I am. I am so thankful for my savior and that he promises to make up the difference. 

Love, Sister Richardson